December 16, 2005

jigtenmig

I’ve been doing some Tibetan translation work lately. Kent’s wonderful website has been very inspiring and educational. His posts are translations of not only Tibetan but of the commonly used words in Tibetan-English dictionaries and language books that seldom make sense to me — emphatic particles, instrumental particles — he’s got you covered. (He hasn’t yet covered dust particles. I’m waiting.)

Having these little words, particles if you will, explained in plain English is nice. It’s a bummer having to stop and scratch your head over English words while you’re trying to translate a foreign text.

I’ve noticed my ability to recognize word patterns is getting better. This is probably the biggest help. Once you learn the alphabet and until you build up your vocabulary you’re kinda stuck. I’ve been fumbling around for awhile now trying to plug away, but getting frustrated by the grammar. I’d look up the definition and have a whole series of translated words that didn’t make sense together. “for house to monk by that is”. (I’m just making this up, it’s not a real example but easily could be.) Is the monk by the house? Is the house for the monk who is by it? Maybe the monk is for houses, that’s why he’s by it?

If you’re a fluent English speaker you can move words around in a sentence to make different meanings. The same is true with Tibetan (and probably most languages). So, Kent is clearing up some things and helping put the words in the right order. If you’re interested, pay a visit.

posted @ 11:25 PM

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